Nickels Follies - 06/14/09 Update

• Greg Nickels: Giving toughness a bad name.
  
  
• Turns SDOT into a back-biting mess with only 8 years of his quality leadership skills.
  
  
• Apparently a bit of well-known civic lore I missed out on till now - Greg Nickels, college drop-out.
  
  
• In a sad failure we only report now on, the idiocy of Nickels "Car Free Days" obstructing access to neighborhoods and businesses in the name of "green" that started in the summer of '08. Reprised this summer, Nickels hare-brained suggestion deprived already challenged businesses of needed summer revenue in '08, resulted in residents having their cars towed from their own neighborhoods, and screwed up traffic flow for miles in all directions.
  
  
• Recently discovered, Nickels suggestion to school children in 2007 that if people don't use those swirly mercury-laced fluorescent light bulbs, that Santa and the Reindeer may drown.
  
  
• Nickels has managed to alienate even liberal bloggers, an amazing feat for an allegedly liberal (some claim simply megalomanic, a relatively fine distinction).
  
  
• Nickels successfully forces a gun ban provision into all contracts to use city facilities, leaving the contract-holder to enforce said ban against attendees and volunteers, and in turn, the Seattle Police will then act as the contractors agent in enforcing the Mayors ban - in an attempt to sidestep pre-emption.
  
  
• As a result of Nickels skill at throwing major public hissy-fits, he manages to bully the Governor into blessing the obscenely expensive Seattle Version Big Dig as a monument to his arrogance and to the lengths he will go to profit his friends at the expense of taxpayers.
  
  
• Snow. After nearly two weeks of 18+ inches of snow on a non-snow city operating on a plan of "gee, if vehicles with chains or 4x4 can maneuver the compacted snow'n'ice of what used to be considered roads, it's all good" with salt declared "environmentally bad" and plow blades with rubber edges (lest the roads be wounded), even as side streets remain unplowed and various business districts are effectively considered expendable. Local Transit (Metro) routes were cut by more than half, interestingly enough, post event Metro heads complain the Mayors office refused to take their calls. Mayor Nickels gives city response a "B" grade. Excellent article on the aftermath by Seattle P-I's Joel Connelly.

• Increasingly globular Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels tells us he's not trying to make life inconvenient for Seattleites...a hint that it just comes naturally to him. A partial list of his more spectacularly foolish moments includes:

• In June 2008, in blatant defiance of state law, Nickels proposed to ban the lawful carry and possession of firearms in all city buildings, parks, and facilities - claiming that the Pre-emption Clause barring this very thing only applied to statutes and ordinances passed by political bodies subordinate to the Washington State Legislature, claiming acts by adminstrative fiat (Mayoral temper tantrum) were somehow outside the statute.

• In November of 2008, Nickels (in the face of a formal legal opinion from WA Attorney General Rob McKenna stating in painful detail that mayoral temper tantrums were not exempt from state law) claimed he would go ahead with his shiny new gun ban, as he needed "clarification" of the AG opinion.

• In the midst of "challenging financial times" Nickels is ram-rodding through the City Council a plan to ban foam containers at restaurants and grocery stores, and impose a 20-cent fee for each disposable paper and plastic bag used in the checkout line at all grocery, convenience and drugstores - with plastic containers/implements/etc banned in July of 2010. In a display of solidarity with less well-off residents that use grocery bags as garbage can liners rather than paying for "extra special" designated baggage, Nickels in an interview said "If you use grocery bags to line your trash can, Nickels says, "that's great, 20-cents."

• After various questionable efforts, Nickels managed to lose Seattle its' pro basketball franchise - the Sonics - for a return of not quite zilch. Good going there, Nickels. Bet those fans will love you come the next elections. And was lucky to escape, IMHO, without perjury charges.
  

• In 2006, the Seattle Weekly reported Nickels diversion of funds earmarked for the Film & Music Office (the kids supposed to be luring big money film productions to town for fun & profit) to support his passion for smooth jazz.

• At the same time, in 2006, the Seattle Times reports Nickels pushed an adult entertainment ordinance so noxious that even do-gooding sorts voted to repeal it in a local referendum.
  

• Nickels kept a police chief that can't even keep track of his own gun, one Gil Kerlikowske, who doubles as Nickels puppet-in-chief for gun control in Olympia each legislative session, even after a vote of no confidence in said "chief" from the Seattle Police Guild.

• Nickels has achieved what few Seattle mayors have - designation by local media as a megalomaniac.

• Nickels cronies in the Parks Department, in a triumph of symbolism over sanity decided to take down a long time Seattle tradition, in a sop thrown to "global warming" - beach fires at Alki Beach and Golden Gardens city parks while a factory burns tires for fuel a short distance away. At least until public outcry forced a Parks Department climb down...
  

• And then there's that loony notion, "car-free" days on local roads - trapping local residents or barring them from their homes if they have the temerity to make an appointment or try to come home during the "forbidden hours".

• Under Nickels, a group of bicycle riding hooligans once a month magically ride above the law, engaging in random property damage and - most recently - assault.

• Nickels, frustrated that the rest of the state won't buy into his delusions, suggested on 4/18 that the Seattle/TriCounty (King/Pierce/Snohomish County) area secede from the rest of the state.
  
  
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Greg Nickels is running for a third term as Mayor/Petty Tyrant in November 2009 - the next likely opportunity for sane folks to get shed of this nutjob.